CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The South African Parliament said Monday it will establish an impeachment committee to reinvestigate four-year-old allegations that President Cyril Ramaphosa committed serious misconduct by hiding the theft of more than half a million dollars in cash, which had been stashed in a sofa at his game ranch.
The new decision follows a ruling by the top Constitutional Court on Friday saying a 2022 Parliament vote that blocked impeachment proceedings against Ramaphosa over the scandal was unconstitutional.
At the time of the vote, Ramaphosa's African National Congress party had a majority in Parliament. The vote was held despite an independent report finding evidence of wrongdoing by the president in allegedly not properly reporting the theft to police and trying to keep an investigation to recover the money secret.
The Constitutional Court last week said that, according to procedure, the 2022 independent report should have been referred to an impeachment committee for further investigation.
Impeaching the leader of Africa's top economy would require the support of at least two-thirds of lawmakers in the 400-member Parliament, according to the Constitution.
Ramaphosa was due to address the country over the issue in a speech on live television Monday night, his office said.
His office previously said after the court ruling on Friday that he respected the decision and “maintains that no person is above the law and that any allegations should be subjected to due process without fear, favor or prejudice.”
The multi-party impeachment committee still needs to conduct an investigation before any move to hold an impeachment vote. No time frame was given for that in Monday's Parliament statement.
Ramaphosa's ANC party lost its Parliament majority in a landmark 2024 election and is now the largest in a coalition government of 10 parties. He still could survive an impeachment vote if his party's lawmakers back him.
The scandal badly damaged the reputation of a president who took office in 2018 on an anti-corruption ticket after a decade of government graft scandals under former leader Jacob Zuma.
The allegations against Ramaphosa were first made by a former head of South Africa's state security agency, who walked into a police station in 2022 and accused the president of money laundering and other offenses over the money. It emerged the theft happened in 2020 and had been kept secret.
Ramaphosa denied wrongdoing and said the money — in U.S. dollars — came from the legitimate sale of buffaloes on his ranch. However, questions arose over the source of the money and why it was hidden in a sofa.
The 2022 independent report said there was “legitimate doubt” over the source of the money, and some evidence that the amount was more than the $580,000 Ramaphosa claimed. It also said Ramaphosa had used the head of his presidential protection unit and others to “surreptitiously” try and track down the suspects.
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
FILE — The entrance to the wildlife Ranch of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Phala Phala Wildlife Farm in Bela Bela, South Africa, June 3, 2022. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa receives military honors during a welcome ceremony at the Planalto Presidential Palace, prior to a meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brasilia, Brazil, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Luis Nova, File)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said the Iran ceasefire is on “life support” after he rejected Tehran’s latest proposal to end the war. Officials said the proposal included some concessions on Iran's disputed nuclear program, but Trump dismissed it as “garbage.”
The stalled diplomacy and recent exchanges of fire could tip the Middle East back into open warfare and prolong the worldwide energy crisis sparked by the conflict, with Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and America’s blockade of Iranian ports still in place.
Asked at an unrelated White House event if the ceasefire was still in place, Trump said it’s “unbelievably weak” and on “life support.”
“I would call it the weakest right now after reading that piece of garbage they sent us,” Trump added. “I didn’t even finish reading it.”
Trump said he would suspend the federal tax on gasoline to help Americans shoulder higher fuel prices caused by the war. That would require congressional approval.
Trump is expected to use a trip this week to China to urge President Xi Jinping to pressure Iran. Beijing is the biggest buyer of Iran’s sanctioned crude oil, giving it leverage.
But the U.S. and Iran remain far apart on a host of issues. Trump has demanded a major rollback of Iran’s nuclear activities, while Iran is pushing for a more limited agreement that would reopen the strait and lift the blockade ahead of further negotiations.
Two regional officials told The Associated Press that Iran has offered to dilute part of its highly enriched uranium and transport the rest to a third country. Russia has previously offered to take it. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomacy.
Trump has demanded that the nuclear material be removed completely, and is unlikely to accept other Iranian proposals for the formalization of its control of the strait and for U.S. reparations.
Trump said Sunday that Iran’s response to his latest proposal was “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” Ending the blockade before discussing Iran’s nuclear program would eliminate a major point of leverage for Trump.
In the meantime, the standoff over the strait, which is a key transit point for the world's oil and natural gas exports, has sent fuel prices skyrocketing and rattled world markets.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who launched the war with Trump on Feb. 28, insisted that the conflict was “not over,” telling CBS’ “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired Sunday that a critical goal is getting the nuclear material out of Iran. If that can't be accomplished with negotiations, Netanyahu said that Israel and the U.S. agree “we can reengage them militarily.”
Netanyahu also said the current Iranian government's “days are numbered — but it could take a lot of days.”
The U.S. and Israel have killed dozens of high-ranking Iranian officials, including the country’s supreme leader in the opening salvos of the war, and the conflict has inflicted heavy damage to Iran’s economy, but its theocracy maintains its grip on power.
Iran's proposal asked that the U.S. recognize its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, formalizing its control over the international waterway. Iran has effectively closed the strait since the start of the war, allowing only a small number of ships to pass and charging tolls.
But experts say such an arrangement would likely violate international law that provides for freedom of navigation. That proposal is also likely to be widely rejected by the international community. The strait was open to international traffic before the war.
Iran is also demanding war reparations from the U.S., the lifting of international sanctions, the unfreezing of Iranian assets held abroad and an end to the war between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah, according to Iranian state TV.
Israel and Hezbollah have continued to exchange blows, mainly in southern Lebanon, since a nominal ceasefire took hold last month.
“We did not demand any concessions — the only thing we demanded was Iran’s legitimate rights,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Monday. “The American side still insists on its one-sided views and unreasonable demands.”
Iran still insists on its right to enrich uranium and that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful. The U.S., Israel and others have long accused it of seeking a nuclear weapon and want most of its program dismantled.
Two regional diplomats familiar with the ongoing talks said that Pakistan was continuing its efforts to broker a compromise.
One of the diplomats said Pakistan was trying to arrange a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war and paving the way for a broader dialogue on issues where the two sides remain divided.
Pakistan had hoped to help finalize the memorandum last week, but the effort did not materialize, and mediators are still working on various proposals, the diplomat said.
The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the behind-the-scenes diplomacy, added that Islamabad is receiving support from other regional countries in its peace efforts.
Meanwhile, Iran executed another man it accused of spying for both the CIA and Israel's Mossad intelligence service. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency said Erfan Shakourzadeh had worked on satellite communications and relayed classified information to those intelligence services.
Iran has carried out a string of executions since nationwide protests swept the country in January. Activist groups have long accused Iran of carrying out closed-door trials during which defendants are unable to fully defend themselves. Iran's judiciary chief has repeatedly said that Tehran would increase the speed with which it carried out hangings to fight back against its enemies at home and abroad.
Kim reported from Washington and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press reporter Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed.
Vehicles drive past banners showing portraits of the school children who were killed during a strike on a school in southern town of Minab on Feb. 28, at Tajrish square in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Women grieve as they carry the body of 6-month-old Mariam Fahos during a funeral procession for people killed a day earlier in an Israeli airstrike in the village of Saksakieh, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
The front page of the Sunday May 10, 2026, edition of Iranian newspaper, Jamejam, is seen with a cartoon satirizing the U.S. President Donald Trump that asks: "Open the the Strait of Hormuz" on a news stand in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A man waves an Iranian flag for a pro-government campaign under a billboard with graphic showing Strait of Hormuz and sewn lips of U.S. President Donald Trump in a square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Motorbikes drive past a billboard with graphic showing the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the U.S. and Israel strikes on Feb. 28, with his framed fist amongst his supporters framed fists in downtown Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
